


The Car

by Dark_And_Twisted_Thing



Series: Wise Blood [4]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: A ridiculous amount of this dialogue is just lifted from the show, AKA: Digestivo: the HISHE edition, Episode AU: s03e07 Digestivo, Fluff, M/M, Tooth Rotting Fluff, but it's ok because I made it happy...kinda, car shenanigans, medical care on the hood of a car
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 04:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9641174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_And_Twisted_Thing/pseuds/Dark_And_Twisted_Thing
Summary: Hannibal and Will put their escape from Mason's farm on pause to patch up some wounds (of both the mental and physical variety).  Some serious conversations are had, some familiar names get dropped, no one dies, no one gets arrested, and everyone just generally feels a lot better afterwards.AKA - this is what Digestivo would have looked like if it had taken place on the hood of a car and everyone had been a lot less sad and grumpy.





	

“Hannibal, where are we going?”

Will’s voice cracked the silence which had pervaded the car for the past five hours of their drive, and Hannibal came within a hair’s width of jumping at the sudden sound. He turned to peer down at Will’s face in the dim grey light of dawn, taking his eyes off the road to watch as the sunlight broke over the horizon and shone golden and bronze against Will’s hair. 

“Will. You are awake.”

Pressing a hand to his throbbing temple, Will shifted sideways in his reclined seat, curling his legs up against the edge of the passenger side door and wiggling his toes. He basked in the sensation of being able to move his limbs again, leaning up to arch his back and shake off the remains of the drug which had rendered him temporarily paralysed for the past several hours. 

“How many years did it take to get that medical degree?” he asked, grimacing as the newfound feeling in his toes turned rapidly into pins and needles.

Hannibal pressed his lips together in a hard line and said nothing, the barest trace of good humour showing in his eyes as they returned to the road. 

As the feeling returned to his extremities, Will became aware of precisely how long he had been cramped immobile in the passenger seat, and he felt a sudden need to remove himself from the confined space of the cabin and stand upright again. 

“Hannibal, pull over.”

His hands tightening a fraction on the steering wheel, Hannibal turned his head sharply.

“Will - “

“Just pull over. I need to get out.”

Hannibal tilted his head slightly in acknowledgement and leaned forward to check the roadside for a suitable lay-by. 

As soon as the car stopped, Will scrabbled for the door handle, pushing open the door and swinging his legs over the edge of his seat. Although his mind told him to jump down from the seat and plant his feet on the ground, his body seemed to have other ideas, and Will quickly found himself hurtling towards the ground face first. Before he could shut his eyes and brace for impact, a pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders, and he clutched wildly at the lapels of Hannibal’s dress coat for support. 

“Shit.”

Hannibal pushed Will gently back into his seat and steadied him with both hands.

“I believe that is the first time I have heard you swear,” Hannibal observed, the hint of a smile playing around the corners of his mouth.  

Will shot him a dirty look and clung to the edge of his seat for balance. 

“You have been completely immobile for some time and your body is still working to expel the last of the paralytic agent from your system. You will need to move slowly for now.”

Will swallowed heavily and shut his eyes as the world titled around him. 

“Ok."

Hannibal gently squeezed Will’s shoulders. 

“Do you want me to let go?”

“Not right now.”

Allowing himself to focus solely on the points where Hannibal’s hands were steadying him and where his own hands were resting against the smooth leather of the car seat, Will inhaled the cold morning air and gradually began to feel stable again. He felt drunk, and he found the sensation unpleasant. Although used to waking up disorientated, the last of the drugs coursing around his system and the weakness in his limbs were combining to make this morning one of the worst Will had experienced, and he felt momentarily grateful for Hannibal’s warm hands on his shoulders. As he sat with his head down and his eyes still shut to the light, he began to feel a warm trickle of liquid work its way down his cheek and onto his chin. Without opening his eyes, he addressed Hannibal.

“Am I bleeding?”

“Yes. The wound on your face has soaked through the bandage. Once you feel steady, I will change the dressing, although the cut may require stitches to heal properly.”

“Cordell was going to cut off my face for Mason.”

“He was.”

“Cordell and Mason are dead now, aren’t they?”

“Cordell definitely. Mason probably.”

Will opened his eyes and looked up sharply, ignoring the pain behind his eyes as he did so.

“Probably?” he asked, looking directly into Hannibal’s eyes.

“Yes. I believe Margot and Alana will have disposed of him.”

Confused, Will attempted to process this information.

“Alana was working with him. She wanted him dead?”

“Margot wanted him dead,” Hannibal replied, “Alana traded my life for the ability to assist her in achieving that goal.”

Will frowned. 

“Why? Why would she do that?”

“I believe she is in love with Margot.”

“She is?”

“She is.”

Closing his eyes again, Will released his hands from their death grip on the seat edge and scrubbed at his face, wiping some of the blood away with the back of his hand. He was unsurprised by Hannibal’s revelation, and he rapidly processed the chain of events which would have led Margot and Alana to each other. There was no greater solace than finding a person who would willingly share your pain, and Will knew Alana and Margot would bear each other’s burdens with a simple grace which would ease the load for both of them. Will smiled slightly at the thought before opening his eyes to look at the problem currently gazing down on him with something very like concern colouring his features. 

“Hannibal where are you taking me?”

“Maine. Although should you like to return to your home in Virginia, I will be happy to turn around.”

“Why are you taking me to Maine?”

Hannibal sighed. 

“ _Us_ , Will. We are both going there at the moment, and I will not continue with this journey at all should you prefer to return home.”

Will reached out and gripped Hannibal’s arms for balance as he began to slide cautiously out of the car. Hannibal grasped him reassuringly and moved back to allow him to stand. 

“Right now I would like to stand up and walk,” Will replied, avoiding the subject entirely for the moment. 

Hannibal smiled.

“Simple pleasures.”

Will huffed out a slightly disgruntled sounding laugh and took some unsteady steps forwards. 

“I think I can manage it on my own.”

Hannibal released him slowly, stepping back to allow Will some space. Rounding the corner of the open passenger door, Will made it to the front of the car before slumping down against the SUV’s front bumper. While Will attempted to steady his still spinning head, Hannibal slid into the vacated passenger seat and began to empty the contents of his coat pockets into the glove box. As soon as he had put some miles between himself and the Verger estate, Hannibal had removed the bloody hammer and Will’s knife from his person, and both weapons were currently residing underneath his driver’s seat. His overstuffed pockets had otherwise remained untouched, and Hannibal found himself pleasantly surprised to see some of the items that he had taken. Locating a bottle of Advil, he kept it aside for Will before safely stowing the remaining first aid supplies and slipping out of the car to check on his charge. Will had managed to hoist himself up onto the car’s bonnet, and was currently watching the sun rise over the still deserted highway, his now slightly damp shoeless feet dangling over the edge of the car’s hood. Cautiously, Hannibal hauled himself up onto the car to join Will, his movements still managing to be graceful despite the inherent gracelessness of the act itself and the persistent throbbing pain in his left shoulder. He let out a small hiss of pain as he settled himself next to Will, who turned to look at him sharply. 

“You hurt bad?” he asked.

Hannibal shrugged minutely. 

“Nothing which will not heal.”

He took the bottle of Advil from his pocket and offered them to Will.

“No water I’m afraid. I did not want to stop until we were well out of state.”

Will took the bottle gratefully and tossed two of the pills down his throat. 

“I used to take 8 of these things a day. Got used to swallowing dry.”

Before snapping the cap back into place, he shook two more of the pills into his palm and offered them to Hannibal. Hannibal smiled and took them wordlessly. They stared at the rising sun in silence for a few moments before Hannibal spoke. 

“Do we talk about teacups and time and the rules of disorder?”

Will was quiet for a while, turning the Advil bottle over and over in his hands. The persistent click of the pills rolling against the plastic was the only noise either of them could hear. Eventually, Will replied, his voice sounding ragged and tired. 

“The teacup is broken, Hannibal.”

“It may yet still come together. In your mind, perhaps. Your memory palace is building itself. It shares many rooms with my own.”

Will smiled sadly. 

“And have you discovered me there?”

“Many times, Will. Always victorious.”

“When it comes to you and me, there can be no victory.”

“No? Are we such a zero sum game then?”

Again, Will remained silent. _Click, click, click -_ the turn of the bottle in Will’s hands marked the minutes which passed until he spoke again. 

“I miss my dogs, you know. I missed them as soon as I left them.”

“When you left them to find me?”

“Yes. I missed their simple loyalty, their easiness, how uncomplicated they were to read and satisfy.”

“Why did you leave them, Will? You could have stayed in your home with your dogs. Left me to my wandering. You knew I would be searched for - you did not have to come for me yourself."

_Click, click, click -_ again, some minutes passed before Will replied. 

“I missed my dogs. But I missed you more. I had to find you. To look for you. I had to know where you were.”

Hannibal shifted slightly, his hand coming up to cradle his aching shoulder. As he spoke, he unconsciously allowed some of the pain he felt to creep into his voice. 

“The attempt you made on my life was clumsy, but earnest. The actions were heartfelt and you were wholly yourself when you chose them. Your action with Cordell was perhaps even more your own. It could be argued that both of us deserved such treatment. And yet, you will no doubt be wracked by guilt. Should you have succeeded in killing me, you would have reprimanded yourself for it. You delight in wickedness and then berate yourself for that delight.”

Will glanced up at him sharply and allowed a hit of annoyance to creep into his tone. 

“You delight. I tolerate.”

“Tolerance is a fig leaf. Used to hide your ravenous self from the world.”

Will threw up his hands in annoyance.

“Hannibal, I don’t share your appetite - it is not what I want.”

Hannibal watched Will as he delivered this statement, his tone filled with bitterness and irritation. When he was done, Will laid back on the hood of the car and pressed his palm over his eyes. Cautiously, minding his injures, Hannibal turned sideways to face him. 

“Will, did you contemplate coming with me before I left?”

Will snorted. 

“‘Before you left’? Do you mean before you killed Abigail?”

Hannibal winced slightly and fell silent. Without opening his eyes, Will sighed before reaching out and gripping Hannibal’s arm. 

“I forgave you for that, Hannibal, and I meant it,” he sat up suddenly and looked into Hannibal’s eyes. “I forgave you for all of it. For what you were, for what you are, for what you did to me, for what you did to Alana, for what you did to Beverly and Abigail. I forgive you.”

“Would you have come with me?” Hannibal repeated, meeting Will’s gaze. 

Bowing his head and glancing up and out to the breaking dawn as his spoke, Will replied.

“Yes, Hannibal. I thought about it.”

“Will you come with me now?”

Will thought for a moment, his fingers still closed around Hannibal’s arm, his face turned towards the sun. 

“If I say no, will you stab me again?”

Hannibal smiled.

“No.”

“And if I say yes, will you try to eat my brain again?”

“I cannot make any promises.”

Looking up sharply, Will registered the amusement in Hannibal’s eyes. 

“That is hardly the sort of assurance I might need to get back in this car with you, Hannibal.”

Hannibal reached up and brushed his fingers along Will’s cheek. 

“Will, if you were to come with me now, I would not make another move to harm you. You have offered your forgiveness for past transgressions freely, but perhaps I should ask for it.”

“I don’t want you to ask for it. I want you to earn it."

“An amnesty then. For both of us.”

There was a brief silence between them before Will took Hannibal’s hand from his cheek and held it in his own. He turned the gesture into a handshake, clasping Hannibal’s fingers tightly as he spoke. 

“A truce? I promise if you promise.”

“A promise then. As long as we are together, I will not choose to hurt you.”

“Mmmm. ‘Choose to hurt me’. Clever choice of words,” Will smiled, “Well then, we won’t _choose_ to hurt each other. For now, that seems like progress.”

“Are you coming with me because you do not wish to bear the consequences of letting me disappear?”

“Partly. It would be unfair to lie to you.”

“If you asked me to turn myself in, I would.”

“Well that would have made things a lot easier back in Florence. You should have said something.”

Hannibal opened his mouth to reply, but Will cut him off.

“Stop thinking. I’m going with you for a number of reasons, some of which I can’t understand myself. But it’s what I’ve chosen for now, so just be quiet and enjoy it. It’s what you wanted, after all.”

“I am content to let it be.”

Briefly squeezing Hannibal’s hand before letting it go, Will looked down mournfully at his damp sock covered feet.

“My feet are wet,” he observed, stoically. 

“My apologies, Will. I wasn’t able to find any shoes which would fit you.”

Will grinned.

“Well you could always start earning that forgiveness by giving me your socks.”

“I would be happy to do so, but I’m afraid I am not wearing any.”

His grin growing a little wider, Will reached down and stripped the wet socks from his feet, letting his bare toes rest against the side of the car. 

“You know when I was locked up, they wouldn’t give me any socks. Something about a risk of me trying to swallow them or make them into a rope. I’d say we’re even now. Even on the ugly borrowed shoes and no socks front at any rate.” 

“I will find some more suitable clothes for you when I am able. There is clothing which will be suitable for myself at our destination, but we may have to purchase some for you.”

“No t-shirts and jeans in my size conveniently stowed at your hide out? You disappoint me, Hannibal.”

“I did not anticipate -“

“I’m kidding. Just make sure I don’t fall over trying to get off this car hood, will you?”

“If you will stay a moment longer, I will change the dressing on your wound.”

Glancing doubtfully at the highway, Will fingered the damp dressing covering Cordell’s cut and winced.

“Don’t you think two men sitting on the hood of a car bleeding all over the place might not be the best thing for a passing motorist to witness?”

“It is 5:30 in the morning, Will, and we are miles away from the nearest town. The likelihood of someone driving by is small to say the least.”

“Alright then. But if a car drives by, we are not chasing them down.”

“I would not dream of it.”

Hannibal slipped gently off the hood of the car and went to retrieve some supplies from the glove box. He contemplated taking the time to stitch Will’s wound shut now, but decided not to tempt fate by lingering too long here, in spite of his conviction that the road would remain deserted. Hands full of clean gauze and some butterfly bandages he had fortunately retrieved from Mason’s incredibly well stocked make-shift operating theatre, he returned to Will, who was wringing the damp from his socks and wiggling his cold toes appreciatively.

“It’s nice to be able to move again.”

“I am pleased that the drugs appear to have done no lasting damage, although the cut on your face may scar.”

Will shrugged. It was nothing but one more to add to his collection, and the thought of having a scarred face caused him no discomfort. Hannibal stood in front of him, depositing his supplies on the car’s bonnet, and hooking his hands under Will’s knees to slide him further forward towards the edge of the hood. Will wrapped his hands around Hannibal’s waist for a moment to steady himself and laughed inwardly at the slight absurdity of their positions.

“I take it back, I doubt any passing motorists would think anything of us at all,” he said, peering up at Hannibal mischievously.

If Hannibal noticed the intimacy of their current pose, he did not acknowledge it, and he curled his fingers around Will’s jaw to angle his head towards the light. 

“Remain still.”

Working quickly and with an efficiency born of practice, Hannibal taped up Will’s wound and re-dressed it. He also took the time to check Will’s other injuries, and noticed that the cut caused by his bone saw was healing fairly well. He finished his work and stepped back, gathering up the used dressing and wrapping it in clean gauze as a temporary sanitary measure. 

“Am I good to go?”

“You are indeed. This should hold until I am able to stitch the wound properly later.”

Carefully, Will reached out and touched Hannibal’s shoulder. 

“What happened to you?”

“Mason chose a somewhat uncomfortable position to restrain me in. I’m afraid I may be showing my age.”

“Was that all that happened?”

Hannibal paused for a moment, fiddling unnecessarily with the bandages in his hands.

“He branded me. Or rather, Cordell did.”

Will felt and absurd flash of annoyance and concern, knowing he should not care, but doing so all the same. 

“Where?”

“Back. It will heal in time, but I fear the pattern may be permanent.”

“Have you taken care of it?”

“I am unable to reach it, unfortunately. But it has ceased to be particularly painful.”

“Like hell. You could be carrying around your own severed arm and you’d tell everyone it didn’t hurt and you’d reattach it later. Let me see.”

“Will, we do not have time to -”

Will let out an exasperated noise.

“Hannibal, let me see it. We have plenty of time. Stop being a martyr and let me help.”

Hannibal sighed and resigned himself to his fate. The bandages were placed on the back of the hood, and Hannibal slipped off his overcoat and laid it down next to them before turning around and allowing Will to ease his stolen shirt up over his back. He could certainly still feel the burn, and it had not ceased to be painful, in spite of his protestations to the contrary. The wound was red and angry, almost black around the edges and an unnatural white towards the centre where the pattern was the clearest. Will held the shirt up carefully with one hand and let his other hand rest gently on the bare skin of Hannibal’s hip while he took in the sight. He felt an absurd desire to cut the pattern out of Hannibal’s skin, to remove the ugly symbol of another’s even temporary power and replace it with his own mark. He shook the feeling off and addressed the man in front of him, who stood rigidly staring into the middle distance. 

“Do you have anything which might help with this? I can put a bandage over it.”

“There is a salve in the glove compartment which should be suitable.”

Hannibal stepped away from Will suddenly and moved back to retrieve the burn ointment from the car. Letting another see his pain was an action which was unfamiliar to him, and Hannibal thought of the last time he had been placed unwillingly in this position. He remembered Bedelia’s hands on him, her skill and practiced detachment rendering her touches clinical as she had pieced him back together after his altercation with Jack. There had been no awkwardness there, but Hannibal was consciously aware of his own sense of profound unease at allowing Will to do this for him. He returned to Will and handed him the tube without looking at him, watching as his fingers closed around it. When Will spoke, it almost startled him. 

“You are not comfortable letting me do this.”

“No.”  

 “The reversal of roles makes you uneasy. It’s always you who patches me up.”

“Partly, yes.”

“Do you think you deserve the pain?”

“Deserve is perhaps the wrong word. It would seem fitting, however. Perhaps I feel that taking comfort at your hands is undeserved.”

“I have taken some comfort at yours.”

“Mostly for injuries I have inflicted, directly or indirectly.”

“You hurt me and make me better by equal measures.”

“Yes, that would be an accurate assessment.”

“You don’t want to owe me then?”

“No, that is too simplistic.”

“Then why the discomfort now?”

Hannibal thought for a moment before replying.

“When I was with Bedelia, I was aware of what she wanted. She was bored, in my debt, slightly attracted by the danger, and sustained partly by the misguided idea that she could seduce me.”

Will raised his eyebrows.

“She came with you because she wanted to sleep with you? Someone has a high opinion of themselves.”

Hannibal ignored him and carried on.

“Our arrangement was simple. I allowed her to come with me because I too was bored and wished for some company. Her conversation was interesting and she was a fascinating subject to toy with on a moral level.”

“You know, Hannibal, you aren’t painting a very nice picture of yourself here.”

Again, Hannibal ignored the interruption and continued. 

“When she displayed what may be construed as affection or offered her assistance, it was due to the reasons I have outlined. Accepting her support was not difficult because it was simple to know where we stood.”

“You don’t know where we stand?”

“No. I find it difficult to fully comprehend your motivations.”

“So you are asking me what we are to each other?”

“In layman’s terms, yes, I suppose that would be accurate.”

Will sighed. 

“Turn around, Hannibal.”

Hannibal raised his eyebrows slightly and looked a little bewildered. Rolling his eyes, Will held up the burn cream. Comprehension dawned, and Hannibal turned around slowly. Will gently lifted Hannibal’s shirt again and squeezed a little of the cream onto his fingers. As he spoke, Will applied it to the burned skin as softly as he could, his fingertips barely brushing the wound. 

“There’s no easy answer to your question. I guess you already know that or you would have put me into a little box neatly labeled with various motivations and stuck me on a shelf next to Bedelia. If you knew why I was here, I probably wouldn’t have made it this far. If you had to guess though,” Will finished applying the ointment and pulled Hannibal back around to face him, “what would you say my motivations were?”

Will left his hand resting easily against Hannibal’s side, and looked up at the man in front of him, watching as he frowned a little before he replied.

“When you found me in the Uffizi, Will, you smiled. I have rarely seen you smile so warmly or so genuinely.”

“You smiled back.”

“I did. I was glad to see your face.”

“You told me that if you were to see me every day, forever, you would remember that time.”

“I did.”

“That is not something a hunter would normally hear from his prey, Hannibal.”

“No, it is not. If that is indeed what we are to each other.”

There was an uneasy silence which held for a moment before Will spoke again.

“Hannibal, are you in love with me?”

Hannibal closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. 

“Do you think me capable of love?”

“That is avoiding the question.”

“It is relevant all the same.”

“You told me you would remember my face forever. Then we went outside, I tried to kill you, your overzealous friend shot me, and then you tried to cut my head open.”

“Bedelia told me if I loved you, I would have to kill you.”

“Sounds like something she’d say. Thank you for that, Bedelia.”

“I was wrong, Will. So was she. I wanted to be rid of you, to consume you, to take everything you could give and leave you behind. But it would have been empty.”

Hannibal reached out and traced the bandage covering the mark left by his bone saw.

“I would have stopped, you know. It was a foolish gesture on my part. Petulant. Short sighted. The world is a much more interesting place with you in it.”

“I would agree with that.”

Hannibal smiled.

Driven by impulse and throwing any remaining caution to the wind, Will closed his hand around Hannibal’s cheek and pressed a kiss into the corner of his mouth. The move was sudden, unexpected, and Hannibal closed his eyes and breathed in, committing everything about the moment to memory before turning his head and kissing Will’s cheek in return.

Hannibal could feel Will’s smile without seeing it. 

“Did you just smell me, Hannibal?”

Pulling back a little and resting his forehead gently against Will’s, Hannibal shut his eyes.

“In this moment, Will, I believe I would cut out my own heart and give it to you still beating, should you ask me for it.”

“Avoiding another question,” Will returned. He raised his hand, wrapping his fingers around Hannibal’s jaw as he kissed him again, using the leverage to slide himself further down the hood of the car and closer to Hannibal’s body.

Hannibal rested his hands on the car’s bonnet, trapping Will inside his arms as their lips touched. They did not kiss for long, Will pulling back almost as quickly as he had rushed forward, but they remained close to each other for a long moment, breathing each other’s air and resting in the warm, quiet space which lay between them. Hannibal opened his eyes to find that Will was looking at him, his eyes roaming over the face in front of him, taking in what was written there. For a while, he let Will look, remaining quiet and watching, not wishing to break the moment in two by speaking. Eventually, it was Will who broke the silence.

“My feet are cold.”

Hannibal looked at him for a second longer before ducking his head and chuckling. Will grinned at him in return, flashing that painful smile which Hannibal knew rarely graced his features.

“We should get back in the car,” Hannibal replied, making no move to release Will from where he sat, still caged in by a pair of arms. 

“We should,” Will agreed. 

Hannibal glanced up at him, his hair falling forward into his eyes, the sunlight behind him making him look like darkness dressed in black. Straitening his arms out behind him and leaning back to rest on his palms, Will leant away from Hannibal’s shadow, the early morning sun bathing his battered face in light. Hannibal watched him, taking in his slight awkwardness and watching as the sunlight glinted in his hair, setting it on fire against his skin. 

_“_ You can see me,” Hannibal said, his voice calm and measured as always. 

Will tilted his head a little as he replied.

“I see you,” he said simply, understanding the meaning behind Hannibal’s words. 

“If this should fail, I would want you to know where I am, Will. And where you can always find me.”  

“You never could hide from me.”

“No. There is an intoxicating pleasure in being known. And being forgiven.”

Will smiled sadly.

“I don’t know if forgiveness will be enough.”

“Should it not be enough, I will be content to know that it was there, freely given.”

“And you will go quietly into that sweet goodnight?” Will chuckled. 

Hannibal replied earnestly.

“If I were to live out the rest of my days without seeing your face again, the memory of this moment would sustain me until my last breath.”

Leaning forward again, Will wrapped both of his hands around Hannibal’s face and tilted his head up to meet his gaze. 

“We might have a lifetime of these moments or we might only have this one, but I won’t leave you alone, Hannibal. I see you. I have endured you. I have survived you. And I won’t leave you alone. I will always come back. ” 

Hannibal shut his eyes and nodded, feeling Will’s cold fingers press firm and reassuring against his skin. 

Will released his face and gave him a gentle push.

“Now shut up and get back in the car. Do you think we can find some food somewhere along this godforsaken highway?”

Straightening up and shaking himself slightly, Hannibal offered his hand to Will as he began to descend from the hood.

“I doubt it will be particularly good food, but I am sure there will be something.”

Will winced a little as his bare feet touched the frosty ground.

“Yeah, well, you’ll survive it I’m sure,” he grinned again, a little more playfully this time. “It’ll have to taste better than the stuff Mason was feeding you.”

Hannibal held on to Will’s hand as he cautiously navigated the cold ground and returned to the passenger seat.  

“Oysters - quite well prepared actually. They are particularly good for accenting the flavour of meat.” Hannibal paused, considering his next remark before delivering it. “I fed a great many of them to Bedelia.”

Will stopped with his hand on the seatbelt and stared at Hannibal with a deadpan expression.

“You really are an ass. You know that, right?”

Plucking the seatbelt from Will’s hand, Hannibal leant across and clipped it into place. His gaze fixed on Will’s mouth, he smiled a little wickedly.

Will looked at him for a moment, fully aware of the motivation behind Hannibal’s current position.

“Get in the damn car, Hannibal.”

Looking far to pleased with himself and laughing slightly, Hannibal withdrew and clicked Will’s door shut behind him. 

Will shut his eyes and wondered what the hell he was getting himself into. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please accept all of the apologies for waiting so long to post the next part of this story. I won't use the pitiful "real life got in the way" excuse, because real life should never be a reason to not post fic and I will own up to just falling victim to a painful amount of posting procrastination...but I hope you enjoy and can forgive my tardiness. 
> 
> Dedicated as always to my dearest blesser. xxx


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